The present disclosure relates generally to medical monitors and, more particularly, to certification of computers that are used in conjunction with medical devices.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the field of healthcare, caregivers (e.g., doctors and other healthcare professionals) often desire to monitor certain physiological characteristics of their patients. Accordingly, a wide variety of devices have been developed for monitoring many such characteristics of a patient. Such devices provide doctors and other healthcare personnel with the information they need to provide the best possible healthcare for their patients. As a result, such monitoring devices have become an indispensable part of modern medicine.
Monitoring devices are often configured as dedicated monitoring units (e.g., a stand-alone pulse oximetry monitor) with integral processing circuitry for receiving measurements from medical devices and converting these measurements into medical information that is meaningful to a clinician. However, certain types of medical devices are capable of being used with configurable personal computers that are loaded with software that communicates with the medical device. For example, a medical sensor may be capable of communicating directly with a personal computer, which, with the appropriate software, is able to receive the sensor measurements and process and display information related to the sensed data. In this manner, an off-the shelf computer may act as a medical monitor.
In contrast to dedicated monitoring devices, which are limited-purpose machines, a personal computer (e.g., a general purpose computer) may be used for a variety of tasks and, as such, may run a variety of different software programs. Different end users may select different brands and/or computer models depending on their own needs. Accordingly, different types of computers may have differing levels of compatibility with particular medical devices. Further, an individual computer may be frequently upgraded or changed from its factory condition according to the needs of the user, and these updates often occur automatically in response software or operating system changes. In certain instances, these changes may cause certain incompatibilities with installed software for receiving medical device information.